author, b. Lansing, Mich. In 1875 he moved with his family to Wisconsin, settling in St. Croix Falls where he came to know the wild north country intimately. He graduated from Michigan Agricultural College (B.S., 1889), studied law and literature at the Univ. of Michigan, and in 1892 struck out for himself in Chicago. The writing career he began there soon marked him as a national figure; yet the Wisconsin of his boyhood permeated the writing of much of his career. Working variously as a journalist and editor (1892-1915) for the Chicago Record, McClure's Magazine, and the American Magazine, he gained fame as a muckraker. In serialized articles, he showed interest in the reform movement led by Robert M. La Follette, Sr. (q.v.), and drew from the Wisconsin story illustrations to illuminate a nationwide tendency. In 1906 he adopted the pen name, "David Grayson," and began a phase of his career in which he devoted himself to writing of the charms of rural life. In these writings his Wisconsin background was apparent in many romantic references to his boyhood and the northland. His best-known works from this period include: Adventures in Contentment (1907); Adventures in Friendship (1910); and Adventures in Understanding (1925). During World War I, Baker served as a special commissioner of the Department of State, became an intimate friend and admirer of President Wilson, and in 1919 was appointed director of the press bureau at the Paris peace conference. Out of this relationship grew Baker's Pulitzer Prize-winning Woodrow Wilson; Life and Letters (8 vols., 1927-1939). Among his last works were the autobiographical Native American (1941) and American Chronicle (1945). New York Times, July 13, 1946; Who's Who in Amer., 24 (1946); R. S. Baker, Native Amer. (New York, 1941); R. S. Baker, Amer. Chronicle (New York, 1945).

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[Source: Dictionary of Wisconsin biography]